“Julian.” I raced to my truck and Solomon and Sebastian appeared at my window just as I slammed the door. I quickly rolled down the window and said, “He has her. Julian has Chansey,” I roared, slamming my fist into the dash of my truck, caving it inward. “I’m going to kill him.”
Solomon reached through the window, touching my shoulder. “You must remain rational, otherwise you expose yourself. Remember, you control the rage, it doesn’t control you.”
Sebastian said, “Listen to me carefully, Curry. We believe we have a good idea about where he took her.” They dashed around to the other side of the truck and got inside. “Drive and we’ll explain on the way.”
Sebastian instructed me to drive West, then explained, “Solomon and I began investigating Julian when you told us about the danger he presented to Chansey and you were right. Our Julian is a very disturbed young man, but the good news is he has a very predictable pattern. After he chooses a woman that fits his type, he takes his time and methodically stalks her.”
“Has he taken anyone before?” I asked.
Sebastian answered, “Yes, we searched his apartment and found some rather disturbing videos of him with several young women and we believe one of the women is the missing student from Ocean Springs. It looked like he had them in some type of cabin or vacation home, so we looked at real estate owned by his father and he has a home on a nearby lake. We believe that is where he is taking her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Solomon said, “You already knew he was dangerous and you were watching Chansey night and day. What would you have done differently?”
“I would have killed him.”
“Of course, you would have and that’s the very reason we didn’t tell you. We just discovered it a few days ago and we needed a plan on how to alert the authorities without tainting a case against him because we couldn’t take a chance of him walking over some legal mumbo jumbo.”
I drove as fast as my old truck would take me and we found the location of the lake house quickly. I parked a hundred yards from the house, trying to not alert Julian to our presence and the three of us raced to the house. “That’s not his car,” I said, panicking at the discovery.
“You aren’t thinking, Curry. Listen to the predatory instincts inside of you. He wouldn’t have put her in his small sports car because they would have been seen. He would need something larger, so he would have swapped vehicles,” Solomon said. “See if you smell her on the vehicle.”
I approached the vehicle and sniffed deeply and was relieved when I smelled her fragrance was all over the large SUV. “I smell her. She’s here.”
Sebastian placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Curry, do what is necessary to safely recover your agápe.”
I needed no further encouragement and dashed for the door. It was locked, so I busted the glass on the door, reached in to unlocked it, and entered the lake house through the living room. There was no sign of Chansey or Julian on the lower level, so I inhaled deeply and listened for the reassuring sound of my agápe’s beating heart, locating them on the level above me. I bolted up the staircase and began unbarring each door I came to.
“Who’s here?” Julian called out, identifying his location.
I made no reply and stood in the doorway, waiting for him to open the door. I wanted to see the look on his face when he realized his worst nightmare was about to come true.
He was startled by my presence when he opened the door. He pointlessly attempted to slam the door on me as I effortlessly pushed through the door, sending him flying across the room, He was stopped by the adjacent wall and slid to the floor in a puddle.
I immediately recognized the difference in Chansey’s familiar essence. It was polluted with something metallic and chemical in nature as she laid dazed on the bed dressed in a long, white satin nightgown. She barely opened her eyes and slowly moved her lips to speak, but no articulation formed and I realized he drugged her.
The monster within me emerged, no longer hibernating, as I roared with fury. I slowly walked toward Julian, daring him to make a move and his expression confirmed his realization that I was something other than human. He pleaded, “I swear, I didn’t harm her.”
I jerked him to his feet. “What part of my warning did you not understand?” I roared in his face as I held him up over my head, squeezing his neck. He scratched, pulled at my iron grip around his throat, and kicked at me uselessly, while I watched his face turn blue. His pulse slowed and I felt his miserable life leaving his body. The monster within instructed me to rip open his neck and drink until he was dry, and while I considered the proposition, I almost didn’t hear the words spoken to me from across the room. “Stop, Curry, you are killing him.”
I turned to see my mentor standing in the doorway and it took a moment for his words to register in my mind because I didn’t want to be stopped. I wanted him dead, so he could never harm Chansey again. “How can you ask me to spare him? He’s a monster far worse than we ever dared to be. Look at what he has done to her and think of the things he did to those other women. It is my responsibility to keep her safe and I can’t let him live.”
He didn’t make a move to physically stop me. “We don’t execute punishment because it isn’t our place. Remember what it is you have learned and what it is you teach. It is the job of the authorities to punish him for his crimes.”
I didn’t want to agree, but I knew he was right. I wanted to throw everything I knew out the window and tear him apart, but it wasn’t my right to kill him, so I dropped his body to the floor, enjoying the sound of the thud on the floor.
Julian sat up on the floor and looked at me. “I know what you are and I want to be like you.”
His words disgusted me. The world couldn’t handle a vampire Julian. “You’re delusional.”
“If you don’t turn me, I’ll tell the world exactly what kind of monster you are. So, it looks like you’re left with two choices. Turn me or kill me.”
“You are either insane or very brave to offer me those two choices. What makes you think I won’t kill you and be done with you?” I asked.
“I know you won’t kill me.” He smiled smugly and looked to Solomon saying, “Because your daddy won’t let you, or is he your boyfriend?”
Sebastian entered the room. “Curry, take Chansey to the hospital, she needs medical attention and I want Solomon to drive you.”
I lifted Chansey from the bed. Her speech was slow and slurred, but she managed to ask, “Curry, what happened?”
I avoided answering her question. “I’m here and everything is going to be fine. You’re going to be fine.”
I carried Chansey through the doorway and noticed Solomon stopped when he saw his mentor wasn’t following behind us. “Sebastian, what are you doing?” Solomon asked.
I stopped and turned to hear his answer, “He is a problem that can only be solved one way. He is a danger to the human race, and now the vampire race, so he sealed his own fate when he threatened to expose us. Both of you, leave this place and don’t look back and we will never speak of this again after this moment. Is it understood?”
Solomon and I simultaneously said, “Completely.”
We walked away, as instructed by our elder and didn’t look back, even when we heard the screams of a monster receiving a well deserved execution, vampire style.
* * *
I entered the doors of the emergency room with Chansey in my arms. “She needs help.” A uniformed man and woman rolled a stretcher toward us and I placed her on it. “She was given some kind of drug.” They rolled her toward an exam room, asking questions as they assessed her. The man asked, “Do you know what kind of drug she was given?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know.”
The female assessed her vitals and said, “My name is Sarah and this Daniel. Sir, we’re going to take good care of her. Do you know if she suffered any physical trauma?”
“I don’t think so.”
They r
emoved the blanket for further observation and saw the lingerie she wore and asked, “Was she sexually assaulted?”
I struggled to control the rage I felt under the surface. Calm yourself. Remember what you have learned. You control the rage. It doesn’t control you. I took a deep breath, clearing my fury enough to reply. “I don’t know.”
I walked beside Chansey on the stretcher, holding her hand as she was rolled to an exam room and lifted her hand to my lips and kissed her palm.
The physician entered the exam room. “I’m Dr. Kerrigan. If she was given some type of drug, it was most likely Rohypnol, so we’ll start with a drug screen and go from there. If it comes back positive, we will run a rape kit.”
I stepped out while the nurse collected a specimen for the drug screen and Chansey was awake when I reentered the exam room. I walked to the side of the bed and took her hand in mine, kissing the top of it and holding it firmly within mine.
Tears flooded her eyes and spilled down her rosy cheeks. Her speech was still slow, but less slurred. “What happened?”
“Julian drugged you, then took you to a secluded house in the woods.”
“I don’t remember anything, it all seems so fuzzy,” she confessed. She closed her eyes and whispered, “Did you find me?”
“Yes, I did,” I said, as she reentered her world of drug induced sleep.
A nurse pulled the curtain and entered the room. She saw Chansey was asleep and gently woke her, saying, “Miss Leclaire, my name is Lesley. I’m one of the ER nurses. Your drug screen came back positive for Rohypnol, so Dr. Kerrigan needs to do an exam.”